Animal Crackers
by Tiny Q
Summary: Ginny hides in the back of the library with her little friend. What happens when someone unwanted finds her? D/G oddness...


Title: Animal Crackers

Author: Tiny Q

E-Mail: one_legged_lesbian_seagull@hotmail.com

A/N: This idea drifted into my head when I was eating (surprise surprise) Animal Crackers.  It was just supposed to be something short and fluffy but it got darker somehow.  I blame 'Frankenstein' because when I started writing this I was halfway through it.  Oh well, I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer:  I own nothing.  Nothing I say.  Except for perhaps the masticated Animal Crackers in my tummy...

**Animal Crackers******

~*~

            Ginny looked about the corner of the library.  She liked to think of it as her own, though she knew other people used this table as well, but she could dream.  It was her place to get away, tucked back in a corner on the second landing.  It was one of the warmer places since there was a fire near by, tended by house elves.  Yet despite the warmth, this table was the only table near it.  She knew it was clichéd to think that a little table in a library by itself could bring her peace, but it was just how she felt.

            Becoming assured that she was truly on her own, she opened her pack that was resting on the table top.  It took a moment, but her little friend came out.  Slowly of course, seeing as his legs were about half a centimeter long.  He did make it out though, and in the end, it doesn't matter where you place, just as long as you finish the race.  Total opposite of the world as of late, but it was a nice and idealistic moral that Ginny liked to think did matter.

            "Now, whose a good zebra?" she cooed at her little friend, looking down with affection on the tan colored creature.  "Did you have a good day in my bag?"  The creature did not respond to her words in anyway, yet Ginny didn't seem to care.  But really, what could she expect when she was talking to a cookie.

            Yes, a cookie.  It was supposed to be her meal, well snack really, but she found that she couldn't eat this one.  Wizarding Animal Crackers move, to make the animal shaped cookies seem more like animals.  They usually just moved a little then stopped moving altogether.  But this one hadn't, and Ginny hadn't been able to bring herself to eat it.  How could you eat something that struggled more than the rest of its kin?  

            She smirked down on her little friend, shaking her head for actually talking to it.  It was childish to do so, and she knew it.  But sometimes her childish side just got the better of her.  Well, she was sixteen.  It was allowed.  And it's not like she didn't have real live people to talk to.  Not many mind you, but she wasn't a loner.  Not by a long shot.  But sometimes her real friends weren't as innocent as her cookie friend.  Not as carefree.  It was refreshing sometimes to be around someone who didn't have any baggage.  Well except perhaps the idea of being someone's meal some day.  That would give anyone a complex though.

            Pulling out her homework and spreading it about her, Ginny got to work.  This was a little habit of hers.  Disappear from everyone she knew so she could sit down long enough to get her homework done without being demanded of her opinion.  She seriously didn't understand why people always asked her how they looked in their new robes or if their hair looked good like this or that.  If you looked at her you wouldn't see any remote sign that she knew what she was talking about when it came to fashion.  Her hair was always the same, her robes too old and worn out, but she never said anything like that.  She just told them what she honestly thought, whether it be good or bad.

            "What the hell is that, Weasley?" a condescending voice demanded from over her shoulder.  

            Jumping slightly she whipped around only to have her eyes connect with someone's well toned chest.  Her eyes drifted up, all the while creasing into a frown as she realized just who this chest belonged to.  She glared into his sneering gray eyes.

            "What do you want, Malfoy?" she demanded, crossing her arms.  

            It was very unusual that someone stumbled across her while she was here at her table.  Sure, people would wander about the bookshelves behind her, but she had never paid them much attention and she assumed the feeling was mutual.  But apparently it wasn't today.  And she never would have guessed that it would have been a Malfoy who broke the tradition.

            "I want to know what that thing is," he drawled, gesturing with his pointed chin to her cookie friend.  Ginny frowned further.

            "What do you care?" she asked, glancing at the zebra shaped cookie.  It was currently munching contentedly on her essay, but not doing too well in the actual digestion factor.  It was more of a paper shredder really.  

            "I don't really, but you will when I don't leave until I find out," he claimed, and as if to prove his point he moved away from her and sat down in the seat across from her.  She glared at the smirk he was wearing.

            "Fine," she hissed.  "It's an Animal Cracker."  He stared at it with a frown.  "A Wizarding Animal Cracker."

            "But aren't they supposed to stop moving after a while?" he asked, frowning at it.  The cookie had now proceeded to go after Ginny's mystery novel.  She pulled the book away as though it were an everyday occurrence.  And it was really.  The creature was a little on the destructive side.

            "Yes," she agreed, staring at it and grinning slightly.  "He didn't though, so then I charmed him so that he never would stop moving."

            "That's some nice charm work," he said in a voice that wasn't quite a drawl.  Ginny snapped her head up to look at him.  Had he just complemented her?  "For a Weasley," he then added, that smirk once again in place.

            "Right," she replied slowly, frowning once more.  "So, you know what my cookie is and you can leave any time now."

            "Why do you have it?" he asked her, ignoring her last statement.  He was staring at the cookie and as Ginny frowned at him some more she could have sworn that he was looking at the zebra with curiosity.  A Malfoy with anything but malice on his face?  Impossible.  

            "I couldn't bring myself to eat it," she admitted, not quite sure why she would actually tell him.  But really, why was she talking to him at all?  Or an even better question: why was he talking _to_ her?

            Ever since she had hit him with that lovely boggie charm two years ago the guy did nothing but torment her.  Well not so much torment her as bother her or insult her whenever he got the chance.  Ginny didn't really care though.  So he insulted her with childish words, it wasn't like she really took what he said to heart.  His words weren't going to make her want to throw herself into the lake and drown or to attack him.  She wasn't like that.  She only attacked when provoked.  And silly words, to her, were not provocation but rather sheer stupidity.

            "It was just too cute," she continued, smiling at her cookie.  "Luna thought I was insane."

            "You mean that loon, Lovegood?" the blonde asked her, smirking now.  "That's a little rich coming from her.  She's nuttier than that headmaster of ours."

            "They're not that crazy," Ginny hissed at him, once again going on the offensive.  Luna was one of her best friends and she trusted Dumbledore with her life, and for good reason too.  "You watch your mother get killed in an accident or experience the atrocities of war over and over and see how you turn out."

            Malfoy's head snapped up and he looked at her straight in the eyes.  Ginny was slightly startled to see anger on his face.  It was amazing how fast he could go from sneer to frown.  She mildly wondered if it could be recorded in some record book.

            "Are you implying something, Weasley?" he said slowly, his voice lower than usual.  

            "If you would like me to, I could be," Ginny scoffed.  This little meeting was becoming cumbersome.  If he wanted throw his insults at her, he could at least have the decency to do it somewhere other than at her table.

            "Cute Weasley," he drawled, narrowing his eyes.  "Very- OW!"

            Ginny jerked slightly at his outburst.  "Very ow?" she asked in confusion.  What kind if insult was that?  Yet she understood it all as he raised one of his elegant hands to show the cookie that was hanging off of it.

            "Well," Ginny said slowly, trying very hard not to burst out laughing.  Not only at the fact that Malfoy had been attacked by a cookie, but because he looked as though his puppy had just been killed in the process.  "He's never done that before."

            "Just like the donkey who never fell over dead, right?" he growled, glaring at her.  He started to wave his hand about to fling the cookie off yet the zebra held on as though it were a clamp.  "Now get this bloody thing off of me."

            "Donkey?" Ginny asked in confusion, reaching forward and stopping the boy's moving hand.  Then she pulled the zebra off and carefully placed it on the table.  It contented itself with nibbling on her Potions notes, and she grinned at it.  'My hero,' she thought, pulling her hand back.  But she couldn't.

            She frowned and turned to see that Malfoy had her hand grasped in his own.  She glared at him.

            "Let go of my hand, Malfoy," she said slowly, giving it a tug to prove her point, but the blonde held fast.

            "How do you do it?" he asked her, causing her to frown in confusion.  He was wearing that curious face again.  

            "Do what?" she asked cautiously, momentarily forgetting about her captured hand.  

            "Talk with such bitterness yet act with such kindness?"

            Ginny stared at him.  What was he getting at?  What was he doing?  What had happened to the real, cruel and evil Draco Malfoy?  Who was this blonde?

            "I don't know," she said with a frown.  She had never really thought about it, and what she had thought about she wasn't about to share with him.  

            "But you must know," he insisted, applying pressure on her hand.  Ginny felt a thrill travel through the length of her arm.  "You can't just be like that and not know why."

            "Why not?" Ginny demanded, trying to pull her hand free.  Yet he held fast, despite her attempts to obtain freedom.  "And what does it matter to you?"

            Ginny glared at him, but the blonde did not respond.  He simply sat there, holding onto her hand, staring at her with an impassive face.  Just as Ginny was beginning to think that perhaps they were going to end up sitting like that for the rest of the evening, he let go.  Ginny's glare dropped away and she massaged her slightly red appendage.

             "I want to know, Weasley," he drawled at her, causing Ginny to look up at him through her hair.  

            There was something wrong about this situation, and Ginny knew it.  Why would a Malfoy ask her about her odd form of benevolence?  And it wasn't like the answer she had to offer, if she actually did offer it to him, would have mattered to him.  Her family was loving, yet she had been constantly teased by her older brothers, mainly the twins, and that had made her a little cynical.  The war and all it brought with it, all his very own father had done, had only perpetuated her cynicism and now she was the way she was today.  Why would the ferret want to know that?

            "Unfortunately, Malfoy," she replied, grabbing her belongings and shoving them into her bag.  "I don't have an answer to give you."  With this said, she grabbed her bag, stood and strode away, not letting herself turn around to see the Malfoy who no longer seemed to act like a Malfoy.

            It wasn't until she was back in the Common Room amongst her friends that she realized that she had left her little Animal Cracker friend behind.

~*~

            It was two weeks later that Ginny found herself sitting in her usual spot in the library, reading her book, alone.  She had returned the next day to find her friend, only to discover that he was nowhere to be seen.  He hadn't been hiding amongst the shelves, or under the table, or eating a book, or keeping warm by the fire.  He had just been gone.  And it made Ginny feel very sad and guilty for abandoning him.  She had created the thing, gave it life in a sense, and then just left him on his own as though he was nothing to her, and it was hurting her.

            Apparently people were picking up on her angst though.  They kept asking her what was wrong, telling her that she looked tired.  She couldn't tell them what was really wrong though.  She couldn't tell them that she was upset over losing a cookie.  She thought it was irrational herself and she was positive that they would too.  Her brother, Ron, had even gone as far as to say that she was depressed about something.  He figured this because sleep problems are one of the signs of depression.  Ginny had assured him that there was nothing to worry about, she was just a little frustrated with school, but never breathed a word about her missing cookie.

            Sighing, Ginny glanced around the library, searching for the little tan zebra.  But, as she suspected he would be, he was nowhere to be seen.  Shaking her head slightly then, Ginny turned her attention back to the open book in her hands and tried to read the same page she had been trying to read for the past hour.  She was so pathetic, falling apart over a cookie.  Well, she could even be borderline insane, now that she thought about it.

            "Uck," she heard someone exclaim, causing her to look up to see her brother standing at the corner of her table.  "This is disgusting."

            Ginny's eyes focused in on the cup in his hands.  It was the same cup that had been sitting on the table when she had arrived.  She felt her lip curling in distaste.  "It's not mine," she told him.

            "What?!" the overly tall red head shrieked, hastily putting the cup back on the table, looking a little green.  "Whose is it?"

            "I dunno," Ginny replied, looking at the anonymous cup.  "It was there when I sat down."

            "Ich," he moaned.  "How could you let me drink it?"

            "Well seeing as I didn't see you arrive," she began.  "And I thought you were smart enough not to drink things that were sitting on the opposite end of the table from me."  She paused.  "Yet apparently I was mistaken."  Ron frowned at her.  "I'll label everything next time for you, alright?"

            Ron scowled at her and Ginny found herself grinning back up at him.  His look softened after a moment and he plopped down into the seat across from her.

            "So this is where you go to escape us all," he said, looking around.  Ginny simply nodded her head.  "Well, I suppose I can see the appeal."

            "You won't tell anyone, will you?" Ginny found herself asking, feeling slightly guilty for even suspecting that her brother would.  He was known for letting things slip out from time to time.  

            Ron shook his head.  "Well, after that whole drink fiasco...," he said, grinning slightly then began to get up.  "But no, I suppose I won't, not yet."  He patted her on the head.  "I have to go finish my research."  He looked a little grumpy at this and Ginny knew that Hermione had had a hand in this supposed research.  "But you should go to bed Gin.  You need to sleep."

            "I will," Ginny replied, stifling a yawn that suddenly decided to try and escape.  "I just want to finish this chapter."  She held up her book.  Ron nodded, and with a little wave, disappeared amongst the shelves.

            Ginny stared after him, wondering exactly how she had received such a brother.  He was concerned for her and yet not inanely overprotective as some of her friend's brothers were.  No, Ron was just the right amount protective, just the right amount of friend, and just the right amount of brother.

            With a smile on her face, Ginny set her eyes back onto her book, truly intending to finish her chapter.  Yet as she read her eyes began to feel heavier and her head kept lolling downward, causing her to wake up.  After a while, however, she mustn't have woken back up for the next thing she knew something was pulling on her hair.  

            Blearily Ginny opened her eyes, groggily realizing that something was pressing into her cheek.  The spine of her book she realized later.  She had fallen asleep on the table.  

            Blinking a few times, Ginny's eye focused in on something wandering before them, pulling on her hair.  She let out a small gasp as she realized what it was.  "My cookie," she breathed, then sat up and scooped it into her hands, bringing it to eye level, examining it.  He looked alright.

            "I can assure you Weasley," a voice drawled in front of her, startling her.  "That I took good care of your little pet."

            Ginny turned and frowned at the Malfoy seated in the chair across from her.  "And why didn't you give him back before?" she asked, placing the cookie on the table once more, where it proceeded to move happily towards her book.  She pulled the book away subconsciously.

            "I didn't want to," he replied, and Ginny felt her eyes grow wide.  

            Ginny knew then that there was something different about Draco Malfoy.  That something had changed and he was no longer the snooty little spoilt brat that she had known before.  Yet as to how this change came about she had no idea.  But his questions for her before and his care for her cookie proved it to her.  And it gave her the creeps.

            "Why?' she found herself asking, staring at him.

            "Why not?" he retorted, looking at the cookie.  The cookie, as though sensing that he was being stared at, began to happily eat Ginny's agenda book.  She didn't think to pull it away from him.

            "What do you want, Malfoy?" she asked him, looking into her expressionless gray eyes.

            "I want a lot of things," he told her, silently moving his hand and pulling the agenda book away from the cookie.  If Ginny would have paid attention to it she would have realized that he had been fighting with the little cookie for the two weeks that he had apparently had it.  But she was too busy focusing on the blonde's words.  "But for now I can suffice with the answer to my question."

            "I am the way I am," Ginny began, not even knowing why the words were coming out.  It was as if she was in a trance of some sort, captured by his eyes.  "Because of the way I have lived.  Just like everybody else."  Ginny could have sworn that she saw something pass through the gray eyes, but couldn't be sure.  She broke contact and looked down on the cookie.  "Everyone is a product of their environment," she continued, moving her book away as well.   

            "Is there any way to break away from it?" he asked, and Ginny felt a jolt of surprise.  She had never really thought of it that way.  Why was this Malfoy bringing her all these ideas that she had never really thought about.  Why was he even here, talking to her once more?  Why had he brought her cookie back?

            "I- I don't know," she responded in a slightly startled voice.  "Why?"

            "Because I don't want to be me anymore," he told her, looking down at the cookie who was walking towards him.  "I don't want to be my father's son anymore."

            Ginny felt her eyes grow even larger and she was very glad that the boy was looking at the cookie and not at her.  Well this was apparently the answer to all her questions.  Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Bad Boy, no longer wanted the title.  He no longer wanted to be on the loosing side.  He wanted to be out of his father's shadow.  And for some reason he was using her to do it.  So much for this table keeping away other people's issues.

            "So why tell me?" she asked him, voicing her silent question.

            "Because you have been touched by darkness before, Weasley," he stated.  "You never knew anything but good until my father interfered, and you survived."  She stared at him in confusion.  "And I've been touched by goodness now, and I want you to help me survive, to become like you."

            "But I don't know how," she found herself whispering, still wide-eyed.  "I don't think I can."  She faltered.

            "And that is how you will do it," he responded, a hint of a smile presenting itself on his lips.  Ginny stared at it.  "Because your benevolence seems to be subconscious."  He reached out an elegant hand and pushed some of her hair behind her ear.  "And all I need is someone to guide me."

            He looked at her for a while, silently appraising her.  Ginny remained silent then after a moment realized what he was waiting for.  Slowly she nodded, not exactly knowing why she was agreeing to this odd request of his.  Not quite sure how she could help him when she didn't even remember how she helped herself.  Not knowing why she was willing to help him at all.  But she did.

            He nodded back and silently stood up, walking away.  He stopped and turned when he reached the nearest bookshelf and turned to face her, that hint of a smile still on his face.  If Ginny didn't know better, she would think that the older boy was happy, that he had hope.

            "I'll see you here some other time, Weasley," he drawled.  And with that he was gone.

            Ginny sat there alone for along while, wondering just what she had gotten herself into.  Wondering just what she could do to help one of the most evil boys in the school.  Wondering if it would be right.  But then she stopped wondering, realizing something that she had held very dear for the past few years.  Malfoy had simply taken his time to get to where she was.  He had been slow to get to this point in the game.  But he was here now and that was all that mattered.  And she couldn't let him fall behind.

~*~

A/N: Well, I think that is the end.  I could easily add on a few more chapters to this, but with all the stories I have going I don't think it would be a very good idea at the moment.  I think it's a good enough stand alone, and who knows, I might add onto it some day.  Anyhoo, tell me what you thought!


End file.
